You knew your kid’s grade school teachers. They were full-time educators, but who’s teaching your kids at college?

Jeffrey Salingo writes at the Washington Post:

Who is teaching your kids in college? You might be surprised.

For 13 years of primary and secondary schools in the United States, parents are assured of one thing: Their children will be taught by full-time teachers whose job it is to be at school for a specified time period each day classes are in session.

But when those kids go off to college, there is no such guarantee. About half of all professors at four-year colleges teach part-time as adjuncts (and the number is even higher at community colleges).

Some adjuncts are working professionals who want to teach on the side and earn a little extra cash (and I mean a little, about $2,500 per 15-week course at many colleges). Many adjuncts, however, have a Ph.D. and would like full-time academic jobs with tenure. In a bid to save money and increase their flexibility in a changing economy, colleges are hiring fewer full-time faculty and more and more adjuncts.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker is getting plenty of attention right now for his plan to weaken faculty tenure at the state’s university system. But too often, debates about faculty tenure overshadow concerns about full-time status for professors. The two are often conflated in the eyes of the public, even though they are unrelated: Faculty members can teach and research full-time in higher education without the benefit of tenure.